The '20s actually were just like this.
"Dudes in hats, machine guns, bullets, booze, and the kind of hot chicks you could still unironically refer to as broads..."
The time of
bootleg, flappers, and jazz. And where coffee costs a dime.
The setting of many an
Agatha Christie mystery, this is one era that absolutely lives up to the stereotypes and then some. The
Great War was over, (most of) the Western world had never been so prosperous - time to
par-tay!
Style is almost exclusively
Art Deco moderne, all minimalist lines and coolly fluid shapes. (Side point- Art Deco's fascination with streamlining household objects whose actual wind resistance is irrelevant proved popular because levelling incomes led for the first time to a group of people who could afford good design but not household servants. It seems that a streamlined Art Deco lamp is easier to
dust than a frilly Victorian one...)
Dresses are short and so is ladies' hair. (Bobbed hair had actually emerged earlier and was popularized during the earlier 20's, while hemlines gradually rose to knee-length by 1925. And despite those costumes you buy these days, above-the-knee hemlines were nonexistent at any time. And contrary to the costumes you buy, not all dresses were tasseled and figure-hugging. Dresses had a boxy and boyish silhouettes, had dropped waists and were minimally or highly decorated depending on the occasion.)
Characters include gangsters and G-men, flappers and their sheiks (sort of proto-
metrosexual young males), languid white movie idols and jolly black jazz singers and dancers, and lots of cheery collegiate types who wear huge fur coats and play ukuleles while shouting "
23 skidoo!" The basic idea was to shock, amaze and amuse at all costs; there were apparently some women of the era who would greet their guests
in the bath.
The fun and excitement is only heightened by the fact that much of it is totally illegal, at least in the USA. There Prohibition is in full swing, so gin is made in bathtubs, smuggled by the likes of Al Capone and served only in 'speakeasies', hole-in-the-wall bars highly prone to raids by stolid, humourless cops. Unless you're Eliot Ness or one of his
Untouchables, be extra cautious to never insult a tough-looking Italian in a sharp suit, or you'll find yourself looking down the barrel of a Tommy Gun.
As for entertainment,
silent films starring the likes of
Charlie Chaplin and
Buster Keaton gained enormous popularity, though the fact that they didn't have sound meant that movies still hadn't killed off
Vaudeville or
Minstrel Shows just yet. The advent of sound later in the decade finished the job, however. Radio progressed quickly through the last of its experimental phases and was firmly established as a mass-market medium by the end of the decade, while ultra-low-def mechanical television had brief success with early adopters (essentially beta-testing it) before
The Great Depression and the advent of (relatively) high-definition all-electronic TV killed it off by the mid-30s.
During all this, of course, the relics of
The Gay Nineties, now doughty dowagers and grumpy old Colonels, look on disapprovingly, from short skirts and hair, to make-up and swimming wear.
One should also note that while things were just swell in America, Britain and much of Western Europe (where it was dubbed
The Golden Twenties across
The Pond), if you were in an area hard hit by
World War I (say,
Germany,
Italy, Russia, Turkey or the entire Caucasus Mountains region before the Soviets annexed it) this was
not a fun time. However, it doesn't mean that they didn't try, once they were able to pull themselves together again. However, in Germany, there are rightwing paramilitary groups who have some very grand ambitions and there will be a few people who get a chilling feeling that
one loudmouth Austrian with a toothbrush mustache is going to be very big trouble.
For example,
Soviet Russia (called USSR since 1922), after a devastating civil war, experienced a short period of economic growth thanks to the NEP (new economic policy), a series of reforms that allowed free enterprise and private property. A new Soviet bourgeoisie was born, with a penchant for over-the-top parties and a slavish fascination with American fashion, music and dance. The Soviet
Nouveau Riche (typically called a
nepman) was a stock character in 20's Russian satire.
Often a nostalgic setting during
The Fifties and
The Sixties. This period lasted sometime after
World War I till the
Crash of 1929.
For the 1939 movie of the same name, click
here.
Also see:
The Great Depression,
The Forties,
The Fifties,
The Sixties,
The Seventies,
The Eighties,
The Nineties,
Turn of the Millennium, and
The New Tens for more decade nostalgia.
Twenties Slang
This ain't baloney, this is Serious Beeswax, as most words and phrases originated from this decade, so here are some examples:
- "Ab-so-lute-ly"
- "And How!" - I agree!
- "Attaboy!/Attagirl!" - well done, son/lad/lass/boy/girl/kid.
- "Baby" - sweetheart, also a respectable word.
- "Bearcat" - Tsundere
- "Beat it" or "23 skidoo" - get lost or GTFO!
- "Bee's knees" or "Cat's meow" - an extraordinarily splendid person, idea or thing.
- "Big cheese" - an important person.
- "Big six" - The Big Guy
- "Blind date" - dating a stranger
- "Bootleg", "hooch" or "giggle water" - alcoholic beverage
- "Bump off" - to kill
- "Crush" - infatuation
- "Dick" - no, not that dick, a private investigator
- "Doll" - sexy lady
- "Double cross" - backstabbing
- "Earful" - enough
- "Egg" - Big cheese living the big life.
- "A flapper" and her "Dapper" - 20s girl and her dad.
- "Fly boy" - aviator
- "For crying out loud!" - the period's Big OMG
- "Gold Digger" - woman who marries a man for his wealth.
- "Goofy" - in love.
- "Hard boiled" or "bimbo" - tough guy. Overlaps with big six.
- "It" - sex appeal
- "Kisser" - mouth
- "Middle aisle" - to marry
- "Pipe down" - shut up
- "Sap" - a fool
- "See a man about a dog" - an old excuse to where he's leaving without any apparent reason
- "Sheik" and "Sheba" - man and woman with sex appeal, respectively
- "Swell" - wonderful
- "Torpedo" - a hired gun.
- "What's eating you?" - What's wrong?
- "Whoopee!" - having a gay old time
- "You slay me" - that's funny.
* Had an earful, sap? I have to see a man about a dog, so pipe down or I'll bump ya off.
Popular tropes from this time period are:
Examples
Anime
Comic Books
- Tintin. First appeared in January, 1929.
- The Necronauts comic is set during this period, and involves several celebrities of the time.
- King Mob of The Invisibles gets to travel back in time to the Roaring Twenties.
Film
Literature
- Most of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)'s work not set in a Dream World.
- Several Jeeves and Wooster stories (1917-1966) by P. G. Wodehouse, and a decent number of his many other ones, too.
- The Sheik. First published in 1919, becoming a great hit in this period.
- Agatha Christie Bibliography. The first published works by Christie appeared in this decade.
- Bulldog Drummond. The novel series started in 1920.
- Tommy and Tuppence. The series started in 1922.
- Lord Peter Wimsey. The novel series started in 1923.
- The Most Dangerous Game. First published in January, 1924.
- Charlie Chan. This series of novels started in 1925.
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (the novel first published in 1925 and the musical later based on it, but not, however, the movie musical)
- The Great Gatsby (1925) is probably the best-known novel set in the 1920s. It features a number of classic elements of the era, including the Depression-era dust bowl, Jazz Age parties, and wealthy bootleggers. For that matter, much of F. Scott Fitzgerald oeuvre was produced in the 1920s and set there.
- The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
- Sannikov Land (1926)
- Some of Ernest Hemingway's work,
- Winnie-the-Pooh. Series started in 1926.
- Hardy Boys. Series started in June,1927.
- Miss Marple. First appeared in December, 1927. Starred in a number of short stories.
- Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)
- The Twelve Chairs (1928) is a famous depictions of the Soviet 20's culture.
- Albert Campion. This series of novels started in 1929.
- Bony. This series of novels started in 1929.
- The Little Golden Calf (1931) is also set in this era.
- Tender Is The Night (1934) is set in France, but mostly portrays Americans of the era.
- Practically the entire published output of Edward Gorey (1925-2000).
- The Phryne Fisher mysteries (1989-) are set in 1928 and 1929, in Melbourne, Australia.
- The Full Matilda (2004) has events starting in this period. Matilda's main storyline starts here, and she continues to live this lifestyle until the day she dies.
- The Princess 99 (c. 2009) takes place in 1924, in New Orleans...but with wizards!
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who, episodes "Black Orchid" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
- Poirot, the TV series; the books actually span a much longer period. (The Miss Marple series, meanwhile, is set in a different version of this trope - what might be called the suburban one. Middle-aged housewives sit around musing how hard it is to get good help since The War gave the rabble ideas.)
- Upstairs Downstairs (seasons 3-5)
- Boardwalk Empire
- In the Charmed episode "Pardon My Past" Prue, Piper and Phoebe time-travel back to the Twenties.
Music
- Louis Armstrong rose to fame in this decade.
- Al Jolson was really big during this era.
- George Gershwin wrote two of his most popular works, "Rhapsody In Blue" and "An American In Paris" during this decade.
Newspaper Comics
- Rupert Bear. First appeared in November, 1920.
- Popeye. First appeared in January, 1929.
Other
Tabletop Games
Video Games
Web Comics
- Lackadaisy Cats, whose only inaccuracy is that the world is populated by anthropomorphic felines. ** And the presence of a cathedral radio, and a few anachronistic cars (by one year). And, maybe, checkbooks.
- Chess Piece takes place at the near end of this decade. Of course, it being an alternate universe, some things are very, very different. Like ghosts inhabiting Antarctica, demons ruling Australia (no, really), and America being ruled by a kindly demonic-looking king.
- Problem Sleuth, save for the occasional Anachronism Stew.
Western Animation
Works made, but not set, during the twenties
Literature
- Colas Breugnon, 1919
- Zorro. First appeared in 1919. The original one-shot novel turned into a novel series in this era.
- Scaramouche. First appeared in 1921. The setting is The French Revolution.
- Solomon Kane. First appeared in August, 1928. The character was active in the late 16th century, and his story ends c. 1610.
- Kull. First appeared in August, 1929.
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